Hello everyone
I have a little curiousity,would be much oblige if someone can help.
I did a search on British Airways B757-236 (G-BIKM) and have notice that this specific aircraft has done flights to quite a few European Hubs.I always thought one Aircraft would fly to the same airport always.For ex.G-BRYS would only fly to Paris.
Could you please explain how the above is done.
Many Thanks in advance
Terrence

I'd say t's a matter of availability. Any airliner will opt to have all their aircrafts flying at the same time. I once read how much an airliner loses on a single aircraft while it's on the ground, and it's NOT pretty figures in any airliners books. Not to mention that BA lost some 6 (I think) million £ pr. day that the concorde spent on the ground. Of course, you have weight it against the total income of BA, but never the less.

Now seriously: Fleet planning is something like rocket science and done by large computers. It is done and redone and redone all the time, even while an aircraft is in the air. Other variables are capacity needed and capacity booked, where will the aircraft be needed tomorrow, is it late, do we need new crew etc. In the end you have a plan that is most likely not flawless, but most of the time it works.
Sorry, I can't explain better. I saw this once in the LH home base (nearly 300 aircraft to be coordinated, just imagine the large US carriers with 600 or more aircraft), one of the guys even tried to explain but he lost me before long.
Regards anyway!
and don't forget Cleos number!!

Two other considerations would be the following:
(1) Speed/Range - time efficiency
(2) Cargo capacity

Fore example:
(1) It is more cost effective to operate an ATR-72 for direct flights with a short flight duration (less than 500 km), rather than up to its limited range of 2700 km; since the longer range would be less time efficient as compared to the same route performed by an A321/320/319 or B737. This is better exemplified by the following basic statistics:

Therefore, for a flight range of 1500 km:
An ATR-72 would require 2 hours and 50 minutes. For that same flight a B737 would require 1 hour and 50 minutes. Therefore the B737 saves 2 hours on a return flight.

(2) On some routes, air cargo brings more profit than the passenger load. Aircraft selection is then done accordingly.